lol. In what world is it 3 hours to Barrier in Renton? From Gig Harbor it took me 45 mins one way. So about 2 hours max. In Tacoma it would take significantly less.
But I don't blame you. I buy my stuff on BRS or Amazon. I'll buy local. But I'm not paying Barrier pricing.
Three hours round trip.
I'm quite off from I-5, very far south - if you're familiar with Firecracker Alley, that's basically it. On a good day, it's 10-15 minutes just to get to I-5.
From there, it's 25 minutes up to 405, an extra 15 minutes on 405. More, if traffic is bad (which it usually is, even on the weekends). So each leg is close to an hour assuming relatively clear traffic. If I was just going there, grabbing some additives off the shelf, and then turning around and going home, yeah, I could probably do that in two hours, there and back.
But I'm not spending two hours in my car to pick up some 2-part, a bottle of Acropower and a blisterpak of frozen. If I'm making the drive, I'm getting corals too... and it takes me some time to figure out what I want. So it's usually at least 30-60 minutes I spend in the shop.
And then tack on the fact that if I'm driving up that way with my wife, she's going to want to stop off at Uwajimaya in Renton, and also to pop off to Bigfoot for some coffee on the drive home... and yeah, it usually is close to 3-4 hours from the time I walk out of my house until I get home.